We anticipate the Wi-Fi will go live next week if not sooner.” -- Kory Alfred, Madison Parks & Recreation director

MADISON, Alabama - Dublin Park will soon be a free Wi-Fi hotspot, becoming the third location where the City of Madison added public wireless internet access.

Madison Parks and Recreation Director Kory Alfred said hardly a day passes when he's at Dublin Park and someone asks when the city will offer free Wi-Fi there. It's a feature he's been trying to put in place for five years.

"We anticipate the Wi-Fi will go live next week if not sooner," he said. "It will cover the building and some of the upper soccer fields. Our goal is to eventually have it cover the entire park, but we'll need to add some more hardware to do that."

The city will contract with WOW! Business to provide a cable modem at Dublin at a cost of $125 per month. The City of Madison IT
Department will build and maintain the wireless network, as it does with city's other Wi-Fi hotspots.

Jason Colee, Madison IT director, said the network initially will support a maximum of 165 simultaneous users
at any one time.

"Once we are done with the initial install which will
cover the main building, pools, the tennis courts and Kids Kingdom, our goal
is to extend the signal to as many of the soccer fields as possible," he said. "I
would anticipate the final network to support anywhere from 250 - 300
simultaneous users."

This article was updated at 4 p.m. to clarify that WOW! Business will only provide the cable modem, and that the city's IT department will build and maintain the network. It also gave an indication of the number of users it can support.